The annual Christmas extravaganza in Southend is known as the biggest pantomime in Essex and the one that gets the big names.

In the past, David Hasselhoff, Lee Mead and Stacey Solomon have starred in the Cliffs Pavilion panto and this year the theatre has struck gold with Diversity.

The UK’s most famous dance troupe appear as the Genies of the Ring in Aladdin, and Essex Live reporter Clare Youell went along with her family to check out the tricks and flips.

Diversity are the stars of this year's panto in Southend

We love a panto in our family.

Ever since I’ve had children I’ve taken them to a pantomime in Essex at Christmas time.

It’s one of those wonderful, funny, festive experiences that we are lucky to have in our country.

We haven’t been to the Cliffs Pavilion panto for a few years though, so we were all excited to see how different it was.

I have to confess a bit of a bias at this point. I’ve been a fan of Diversity ever since they flipped their way to victory in Britain’s Got Talent in 2009.

Somehow I’ve never managed to see them perform live however, so I can honestly say that this year I was as excited as my kids were to see the show.

Getting ready to watch Aladdin

It’s common to have celebrity guest stars in pantos of course, but I was wondering how they would work an eight-strong dance troupe into the tale of Aladdin.

But they know what they’re doing at the Cliffs and I shouldn’t have worried.

These days, panto producers are allowed to take creative licence with fairy tales. So what we got here was all the best bits of Aladdin with some extra characters and scenes weaved in too.

As soon as we sat down it was obvious that this was big budget compared to a lot of other regional pantomimes. The set was breathtaking, the props were jaw-dropping and the costumes gorgeous.

One of the first characters on stage was Wishee Washee, played by the brilliant Ian Royce. Stand-up comedian Ian is a good friend of Simon Cowell’s as he’s done the warm-up shows for Britain’s Got Talent and X Factor since 2007, so he’s also mates with his co-stars Diversity.

David Phipps-Davis as Widow Twanky

This guy is so genuinely funny and charismatic that he had the panto audience warmed up in minutes. He got a few people on stage and berated the guy who was posting on Instagram halfway through his sketch. There was also some near the mark humour for the parents which luckily went straight over the kids’ heads.

Then we met Aladdin who, we are told, has been in love with Princess Jasmine for years but has only ever managed to sneak a peek at her over the castle walls.

They do meet of course and fall instantly in love but are thwarted by the devilish Abanazar and his plan to use Aladdin to steal the magic lamp from the cave of wonders.

Abanazar is played with perfect panto villainy by Daniel Boys who relishes every wicked line and is encouraged by every heartfelt boo from the audience. We meet his huge snake friend too which is created by a gigantic prop complete with huge glowering eyes.

X Factor's Ian Royce as Wishee Washee

But of course what many of us were waiting for (well definitely me anyway) were Diversity themselves. Aladdin is gifted a magical ring where he can call upon the genies who live inside it whenever he’s in trouble. Those genies are Diversity and they burst onto the stage with explosions, backflips and somersaults that are jaw-droppingly good.

I can honestly say they were nothing short of fantastic. I think my mouth did involuntarily hang open a few times (thank God it was dark).

I was a tiny bit worried that they wouldn’t be as good as I was expecting in real life but they were even better.

I’ve seen a fair few dance shows in my time, including some troupes from America and Canada, but Diversity surpassed all of them. It’s not ideal for a reporter to be stuck for words but I just can’t quite convey how incredible they are.

Led by the charming Ashley Banjo, the dancers perform feats that shouldn’t be possible with the human body and their routines are packed with awesome jumps, flips and synchronised dance moves that are so perfectly timed they could only come from the real deal.

Ashley Banjo from Diversity with Aladdin's lamp

There’s so many dancers in Diversity (well eight) that they couldn’t all have a big acting part so Ashley and Perri Kiely did the main honours and did their troupe proud. Ashley was charming and commanding, while Perri was genuinely funny, especially when he had a comedy dance off with his old mate Ian Royce.

The rest of the panto cast were excellent too. Liam Doyle was charming, brave and funny as Aladdin and Denquar Chupack was sweet and feisty in equal measure as Jasmine.

A big shout out has to go to seasoned pantomime dame David Phipps-Davis who put on a great show as Aladdin and Wishee Washee’s mum, Widow Twanky.

A standout moment goes to the props department too for the scene where Aladdin ‘flew’ into the audience on the magic carpet. My girls thought it was wonderful and even I wondered how they did it.

Diversity with Clare's children Jessica and Amy

The songs were funny, Wishee Washee was silly, the acting was great and Diversity were nothing short of spectacular.

We were lucky as we went on press night so we got to meet the cast afterwards in the Pavilion restaurant for wine and nibbles.

Despite the fact that they must have been shattered, the whole cast came out to see everyone and posed for selfies with the children.

Diversity couldn’t have been nicer and were so welcoming to my daughters, who were bursting with excitement to meet their dance idols.

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